he owned half of the social network and was entitled to billions of
dollars from the company and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, according
toAssociated Press.
The case was dismissed in April and the man, Paul Ceglia, is facing
related criminal charges.
Facebook Inc. and Zuckerberg filed a lawsuit Monday against DLA Piper
and other law firms and lawyers, saying they conspired to file and
prosecute a fraudulent lawsuit. DLA Piper is one of the world's
largest business law firms.
Ceglia claimed in a 2010 lawsuit that he and Zuckerberg signed a 2003
software development contract that included a provision entitling him
to half-ownership of Facebook in exchange for $1,000 in startup money
for the budding company.
Facebook's lawyers had claimed that while the two did have a contract,
references to the company were slipped in for the lawsuit.
In its lawsuit filed in New York State Supreme Court, Facebook claims
that the lawyers representing Ceglia "knew or should have known" that
his lawsuit was fraudulent and "based on an implausible story and
obviously forged documents."
Facebook, which is based in Menlo Park, California, is seeking
unspecified damages along with reimbursement of its expenses racked up
in defending itself against the lawsuit.
"We said from the beginning that Paul Ceglia's claim was a fraud and
that we would seek to hold those responsible accountable," Colin
Stretch, Facebook's general counsel, said in a statement.
"DLA Piper and the other named law firms knew the case was based on
forged documents yet they pursued it anyway, and they should be held
to account."
DLA Piper called the suit "baseless" and said it was filed to
intimidate lawyers from suing Facebook.
"DLA Piper, which was not part of this case at its outset or its
conclusion, was involved for 78 days," Peter Pantaleo, the firm's
general counsel, said in a statement.
"Facebook and Mr. Zuckerberg claim that they were damaged in those 78
days, yet a mere 10 months after DLA Piper withdrew from the case and
while the litigation was still pending, Facebook went to market with
an initial public offering that valued the company at $100bn."
Other law firms named in the suit, including Milberg LLP and Paul
Argentieri and Associates, could not immediately be reached for
comment Monday afternoon.
Ceglia is awaiting trial on criminal fraud charges related to the
case. He is accused of doctoring and destroying evidence to support
his Facebook claim, and has pleaded not guilty.
Facebook's lawsuit says Zuckerberg and Ceglia signed a two-page
contract in April 2003, "months before Zuckerberg had even conceived
of the idea that became Facebook."
"That contract had nothing to do with Facebook or any other social
networking service," the lawsuit says, adding that Ceglia and
Zuckerberg stopped communicating in 2004.
Facebook, then called Thefacebook.com, launched in February 2004 out
of Zuckerberg's Harvard dorm room. It was first open only to Harvard
students and the decade since it expanded into the world's largest
online social network with more than 1.3 billion users.
The company went public in 2012. It now has a market value of nearly $200bn.
No comments:
Post a Comment